School pictures

The talented, Mr. Jake, braided Ava's hair for school pictures.  I think it's amazing he knows how to do that because not even his momma knows how to do that

Surf Park

I was glad that I ran across these pictures on the computer.  Rick had taken Brad and Jake along with some of their cousins to an indoor surf park.  Some of the cousins that went were Caden, Blake, Crissy's (Rick's sister and Nichole's best friend/roommate from college) son Josh.  I wish I could have gone that day, but I remember that I couldn't get off from work.

A fun thing about Rick is that after Nichole and I were first married, we actually lived with him and Elena in a small apartment in Provo.  The place was a dive, but some fun memories for a couple newlyweds were made there.  Morgan was just a couple years old and Lexi was just a baby.  Now, Morgan is on a mission and Lexi a college student at BYU.  It's crazy how time flies by

Just spending some time with the kids

I went on a date last night with Brad and Jake.  Of course, they are at an age where they would not say it was a "date", especially since it is with their dad.  But, Nichole was out Christmas shopping with Ava and Eli which left me at home with Brad and Jake.  Ethan had to go to work at Papa Murphy's.  Well, Jake is someone who is always thinking of something else he can be doing.  A couple weeks ago, he wanted to do dance classes with Ava.  Now, he wants to build a club house.  Granted, he has been wanting to do that for a while.  He has seen his daddy remodeling the house and now thinks it is his turn to have us do what he wants.  So, we went to the Home Depot to price things out to build a clubhouse.  I was trying to show them how much something like this would cost.  Well, of course, the only thing they could think of was that we needed to start that night building it.  I may have put my foot in my mouth, but I convinced them it would be better to build a whole apartment into our third care garage since it is only used for storing bikes as opposed to building another exterior structure.  We measured the garage up and drew up our plans for an amazing clubhouse/apartment.  So, I guess it is now time to get started on the next phase of remodeling.  I hope this next week or two I will be able to finish up with the kitchen, the stairs area and do a little upstairs. Then, I can start with the kiddos and build our clubhouse.  I'm actually kind of excited to do this project.  It'll be a fun one

Dad's and Doughnuts

Ava was so excited for her daddy to come to her Lakeview Academy school day on Friday.  They were going to have the dads and doughnuts day. Days leading up to this, she kept telling me how excited she was to let me come to her class.  In fact, Thursday, the day before, Ava and I went on one of our favorite dates...swimming at the Legacy.  It's fun as a father to see my daughter getting so much better at swimming.  When she concentrates, she can do well with the freestyle.  But, she struggles to breathe and keep the stroke going.  While swimming, she kept saying, "daddy, are you coming tomorrow?"  I could not say no.  I had to be available to go to her class and not disappoint her.  A few years ago, I disappointed Jake by not being able to go to his dad's and son's school day and he reminded me of that.  I felt bad for missing his day, and the sad thing is that he remembers.  It was a reminder to me that I need to be there for my kids when they need me 

Here Ava is with her good friend, Addie Beck.  Addie's older brother is Grayson, who is good friends with Brad